A vehicle transmission is one of the most important parts of a vehicle because the transmission allows power from the engine to reach the wheels of the vehicle, allowing the wheels to rotate and move the vehicle. Transmissions, such as automatic transmissions, have several modes of operation, such as Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive, as we well as manual shift features. A parking pawl is a device that is fitted to a vehicle's automatic transmission and configured to engage the transmission. The parking pawl engages the transmission when the driver places the transmission shift lever in the Park position, i.e., when a driver of the vehicle wants to park the vehicle and thus shifts the transmission shift lever to the Park position. The park position is usually the first position in all cars sold in the united due to a standard by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) back in 1965.
The park position configuration of the transmission is typically achieved by preventing the movement of various components in the transmission. Most actuators control the parking mode by means of a cable or mechanical linkage attaching the gear shifter to the park pawl within the transmission. When the driver places the transmission shift lever into Park position, the mechanical linkage actuates the Park Pawl and engages with external teeth on the transmission, thus locking all rotating components. In other known electronically actuated transmission systems, mechanical linkages are replaced by a power actuated shift module located on or within the transmission. However, such prior art systems have low efficiency mechanical linkages or involve gear reductions and worm gearing which takes more space outside the module. Accordingly, there exists a need for a parking pawl module which takes up less space and is more efficient.